China Daily – Beijing’s global voice?

This chapter takes d'Hooghe's finding as a starting point and introduces the English-language newspaper China Daily as one instrument of China's public diplomacy. It starts with a brief discussion of public diplomacy in China and of China Daily as one of its instruments. The chapter reviews the newspaper in China before it investigates the recent global ambitions of the newspaper group with a special focus on Africa and Europe. In China, the group runs China Business Weekly, the Shanghai Star, Beijing Weekend, 21st Century, 21st Century Teens Senior Edition, and 21st Century Teens Junior Edition. Overall, it can be argued that China Daily is clearly Beijing's global voice, mainly due to its potentially global reach. As China becomes increasingly engaged with the rest of the world, the Chinese government has realized the importance of favourable international public opinion to the development of the country.